Passenger Says Teen Driver Panicked, Hit Gas Outside NSA

Published at 5:43 PM EST on Feb 17, 2018

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A passenger in a vehicle that was fired upon outside the National Security Agency campus says the unlicensed teen driver made a wrong turn, panicked and hit the gas.

Passenger Javonte Alhajie Brown told The Washington Post Friday that the 17-year-old driver was following GPS directions to reach a friend's house in a Maryland suburb, but he turned onto a restricted-access road that leads to the top-secret installation.

"I woke up with him slapping me in the face screaming, 'I'm going the wrong way. I don't know how I got here,'"Brown said.

"I was screaming at him," Brown continued, "'How the hell did you do this? And why aren't you stopping?'"

Brown, 24, told the newspaper that he had been too tired to drive Wednesday morning and handed the keys of the rented black sport utility vehicle to his teenage friend. They were heading to Brown's brother's house from Washington, D.C. Another passenger, who has not been publicly identified, was also in the car.

Brown said he went to sleep. But he was jolted awake by police officers from the NSA shouting outside Fort Meade. Some of them banged on the vehicle's doors and windows.

Others pointed guns as the SUV kept moving. At least one officer fired, striking the windshield several times. The occupants weren't hit by bullets, but the driver was left with an apparent shrapnel injury.